Notes From [Seattle] Hempfest

In what European country do people smoke more marijuana, per
capita, than in the U.S.? No, it's not Holland, it's the Czech
Republic. Travel writer Rick Steves threw that surprising fact
into his talk Sunday at the Seattle Hempfest. He had just come back from
two months in Europe where, he said, "a joint causes as
much excitement as a can of beer. It's just not a big deal."
Steves lives in nearby Edmond, WA, from whence he runs his flourishing
guidebook business.

Is there any public figure in America who risks more, careerwise,
by openly challenging the marijuana prohibition? "I've got
to be careful not to overplay my hand," he said, "but
everybody in public television knows what I'm doing and they're
with me." Rick Steves for Secretary of State!

The Hempfest -- the world's biggest pro-cannabis rally by
far -- developed out of a Seattle vigil opposing the Gulf War
in 1991. Opposition to the current catastrophe in Iraq was expressed
at this year's event by the very visible Ron-Paul-for-President
crew. There was also a booth at which Fred Miller of Peace Action of Washington disseminated info
about U.S. military spending. Miller's routine is called "Incredible
Feats of Stupidity" and highlights Pentagon programs
such as the one that provided landlocked Zimbabwe with anti-submarine
rockets. Miller's partner, Gabrielle Lavalle, wore a little crown
on her blonde bouffant wig and a powder-blue dress with a sash
across her chest that said "I Miss America."
She'll be taking part in an "I Miss America"
pageant Monday afternoon (August 27) when George Bush comes to
Bellevue to fundraise for pro-war Congressman Dave Reichert.
Beauties interested in joining can call 206-789-6863.

The 16th annual Hempfest was held August 18-19 in Myrtle Edwards
Park, a mile-long strip of greenery along Elliott Bay. Vendors'
booths -- this year there were almost 300 -- line a couple of
winding asphalt pathways. Tents and stages are set up where the
lawn widens. Speakers are interspersed with bands. The Seattle
Post-Intelligencer (which had a booth offering subscriptions
at a deep discount along with a free toolbelt) estimated the
two-day crowd at 150,000. It rained fairly hard for about 15
minutes on Saturday and nobody paid it any mind. That's Seattle
for you. Sunday there was a soft drizzle for most of the morning,
then the sun came out.

The hemp-loving masses thronging through the narrow park were
mainly young adults, so-called "recreational users."
Jeff Hergenrather, MD, was struck by how youthful and able-bodied
the crowd seemed compared to the patients he sees in Sonoma County.
I doubt that Dr. Tom O'Connell would have had the same take.
O'Connell contends that young adults who use cannabis regularly
are self-medicating for anxiety and depression. It's a safe assumption
that a large percentage of people at the Hempfest were working
at entry-level jobs. In a system that enables very few to make
a secure living, this is reason enough for anxiety and depression.
A decade ago at a hemp event you'd see lots of classy-looking
people in draw-string pants. Now you see the working-class youth
in t-shirts proclaiming "Wake and Bake," or
"Jesus is coming, better roll another joint,"
or "Harry Pothead" (with a drawing of the young
wizard smoking one).

Memorable speakers included a middle-aged woman named Nora
Callahan, leader of the November Coalition, which supports prisoners
of the drug war. As Callahan tells it, "My brother was arrested
and charged in a drug conspiracy at the end of the 1980s. On
words of 'cooperators' -- snitches -- he was convicted in federal
court and sentenced to 27 years in prison. That's when I found
out that the phony war on drugs is a real war on people, and
has no chance at creating a drug-free America." Callahan
described the recent murder by Atlanta police of a 90-something
black woman whose house they raided on a tip from a confidential
informant. "We have a secret policing system in this country
that relies on snitches instead of doing real investigations.
They have quotas and have to make so many arrests in order to
keep their jobs. When my brother was arrested I was changed forever.
I will never trust the government again and that's not a good
thing because the government is 'mine' and not trusting it is
like not trusting yourself."

On the doctors' panel David Bearman, MD, reported that there
are now 60 MDs in the Santa Barbara area who have approved marijuana
use by their regular patients, and three who will issue approvals
to patients for whom they don't provide primary care. "The
thing that has moved the doctors along is their patients, whom
they know are sick, telling them that marijuana helps them. They've
also been noticing that many of these patients are doing better
although they're using less prescription medicine." This
steady rise in the number of Californians seeking approvals and
doctors issuing them continues despite intermittent DEA raids
on growers and dispensaries.

Frank Lucido, MD, of Berkeley, recounted how he came to monitor
meetings of the Medical Board of California after being investigated
(and ultimately cleared) by the board in 2001. Lucido had approved
cannabis use by "a 16-about-to-be-17-year-old with severe
attention deficit disorder" who had been having problems
academically and socially. Cannabis enabled him to get A's and
make friends. Lucido believes that doctors who conduct appropriate
exams have little to fear from the medical board at this point.
"I thank the doctors with low practice standards for taking
the heat off us," he said facetiously.

Dr. Robert Melamede, a biology professor at UC Colorado Springs,
is a vivid expositor who in three minutes can describe how our
bodies make marijuana-like compounds (endocannabinoids) to minimize
the free-radical production that causes a wide range of age-related
problems. "Open-mindedness is one of the things the cannabinoids
regulate," according to Melamede. He generalizes that political
conservatives are "backwards looking" due to deficient
cannabinoid levels. And because they're looking back at a fixed,
agreed-upon past, conservatives tend towards unity, which enables
them to gain power. Radicals, on the other hand, are contemplating
various possible futures, so they tend towards disunity. Maybe
because your correspondent wasn't laughing in agreement like
the rest of the audience, Melamede asked me what I made of his
hypothesis, and I had to break it to him gently: History is about
class struggle, not cannabinoid levels, and the disunity of those
on the bottom is imposed by the ruling-class via the culture
-- nationalism, religion, ethnicity, race, gender, age, immigration
status, musical taste, drug of choice... whatever serves to divide
us.

At the end of a panel of young lobbyists, Rob Kampia of the
Marijuana Policy
Project commented on the recent defeat of the Hinchey-Rohrabacher
amendment. The measure would have defunded DEA raids on growers
and distributors in the medical marijuana states. Kampia's MPP
had donated to many a Congressperson's PAC -- they even paid
Bob Barr of Georgia $10,000/month to push Hinchey-Rohrabacher
-- but the costly effort failed to garner more than two additional
votes this session. Kampia said that in the period ahead MPP
would spend more money on "grassroots" efforts. By
which he meant picking districts in which Congresspersons might
be swayed, and then paying off "people like leading clergymen
and college presidents" to help sway them. It's a tactical
adjustment, not a fundamental change of approach. Look for the
word "grassroots" in future MPP fundraising pitches.

An Organizational Miracle

No one owns the Hempfest, no impresario's name is attached
to it, there are no profits for anyone to take home. Funding
comes from the vendors (a basic booth costs $420), sponsors who
take ads in the program, and $5 donations solicited at the entrance.
Planning and staging the event involves a miraculous collective
effort. This glimpse of how it's done comes from Peter Henry,
the man in charge of trash removal:

"Most of the year, while the rest of the 'core staff'
attend monthly meetings, I'm off in my own world teaching high
school. I get involved a few weeks prior to the Fest by organizing
recycling containers (which the city provides for free) and trash
dumpsters (which we pay through the nose for), then a friend
of mine and I work like dogs through the festival until the park
is cleaned up.

"Most crew-leaders recruit their friends to help them
out, and most crews are perpetually short-handed. My situation
isn't the best -- after all, how exciting can you make it sound
to pick up trash? Hempfest relies on many walk-up volunteers;
here's a shirt, here's a bag, here's some gloves, now go out
and pick up trash. Many of these folks may live marginally, but
they still want to help. I remember going home one year at 1
AM on Saturday night, the ground covered in litter. It had all
been picked up the next morning by an army of street kids. On
Monday and Tuesday we might find people helping clean up the
park who haven't even been to the event . They see what we're
doing and they just pitch in.

"Nobody is paid. Some of the bands get a travel allowance
but it isn't exactly princely. Lots of core members put in hundreds
of dollars of their own money to make it happen. And the miracle
is, each year it comes off and we leave the park as clean as
we found it."

The Hempfest's goals are explicitly political. Vivian McPeak,
a prime mover since 1991, quotes Gandhi: "'First they ignore
you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win.'"
McPeak adds, "Hempfest exists so that they will never be
able to ignore us, and its excellence comes so that they can
not laugh at us. We educate our attendees so that as they fight
with us, we will know how to win."

Hempfest staff are still mourning the death of Share Parker,
a super organizer who handled their finances for many years.
She died of cancer last December. The program stated, "Tall
and resolute, dreadlocked to the ground, she dedicated her life
to Hempfest. She questioned every bill and secured most everything
we needed from insurance to toilets." Share kept time as
well as the books -- she played bass for the Hempfest house band,
the Herbivores. I met her once and figured the weight of her
thick mat of braids was helping her stand so erect.

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